Affandi Eating Watermelon

Provenance

1. Sudjana Kerton Gallery, Bandung — the family’s studio-gallery — until 1997.
2. 1997Stolen from the Sudjana Kerton Gallery, Bandung, on 2 February 1997 (The Jakarta Post, 6 and 13 February 1997); listed by the estate as missing (kertonart.com, “STOLEN WORKS”).

Literature

• “19 paintings stolen from art gallery”, The Jakarta Post, 6 February 1997. The first report of the theft from the Sudjana Kerton Gallery, Bandung: the Bandung police special team, and co-operation with the Jakarta police and Interpol.
• Amir Sidharta, “Stolen paintings reflect Kerton’s career”, The Jakarta Post, 13 February 1997. Reads the stolen works as a survey of his career: Affandi’s 1962 visit and the Mexican year, Sanggar Luhur, and the late village subjects.
• “The list of Sudjana Kerton paintings stolen on Sunday night, Feb. 2, 1997”, The Jakarta Post, 13 February 1997. The nineteen works with their dates and sizes; it agrees with the estate’s captions except for three details, noted on the entries concerned.
• Cornelius Helmy Herlambang, “Rindu Mata dan Ingatan Pelukis Sudjana Kerton untuk Bandung”, Kompas, 22 December 2025. On the Bandoeng Doeloe exhibition at Plataran Bandung, with Tjandra Kerton; dates the 1997 theft to Sunday 2 February and reports that some of the stolen paintings have since come back, though not all have been found.

Notes & sources

Painted in New York in the summer of 1962, on the day Affandi visited Kerton and the two painted together (Amir Sidharta, The Jakarta Post, 13 February 1997). No. 9 in the list of the stolen works published in The Jakarta Post, 13 February 1997: “Affandi Eating Watermelon”, 1962, 89 × 54 cm. Estate caption (kertonart.com gallery): “1962, New York / Oil on canvas / 89 cm x 54 cm”. Dimensions follow the caption’s order; height and width are unconfirmed.